Spells Like Teen Spirit Page 14

  “Jump the Shark is a really good band,” I said, and Kendra, or Karen, practically swooned.

  “Oh my God,” she said, “I loooooovve them.”

  “Me too,” said nipple boy.

  “Don’t they totally rock?” I asked him.

  “They most definitely do,” he said, nodding his assent.

  “You should book them to play the dance this Saturday,” I said, and the whole committee nodded like a bunch of bobblehead dogs.

  “Can we?” a girl gushed. “I mean, that would be a dream.”

  “They might be touring right now,” I said, “and selling out stadiums, since they’re so popular, but I have an in. Leave it to me. I’ll take care of everything.”

  “Thank you so much, Emily,” one of the Ks said. “You are the best.”

  I smiled broadly and started to gather up my spell ingredients to leave. Then, because I couldn’t resist, I had to throw a few more concepts to the crowd. “Women’s rights are human rights, and love is love,” I said.

  Nipple boy pumped his fist in the air. “I couldn’t agree more!” he yelled.

  My job here was done.

  I was feeling pretty good about myself as I walked out of the library, and I spied Janis immediately at the end of the hallway. “Done and done,” I said. “This is going to be the worst dance ever.” She met my glee with a grimace, though, that was explained as soon as I fully turned the corner. She wasn’t alone, and Brian was lounging against the wall, just a few lockers down from her.

  “How was that latte?” he asked.

  “Nice and crumbly,” I answered as I tossed it into the trash.

  “I said nothing,” Janis said. “Even though he threatened me with torture.”

  “I threatened you with detention,” he corrected. “Which is not the same thing.”

  “Depends on who you ask,” Janis said.

  “I’m not asking you,” Brian said. Then he turned his attention back to me. “Esme, the more I think about this, the more it doesn’t sit well with me, at all.”

  “Pun intended?” I asked, and he ignored me.

  “By doing this, we are basically inviting four people, whom we suspect of being Red Magic practitioners, and whom we know very little about, into a place where hundreds of teenagers are sitting ducks,” he said, wiping his palms on the front of his tracksuit. “If you and Cassandra insist on doing this, we need to take extra precautions. I’m going to—”

  I held up my hand to cut him off. “Brian,” I said, “we got this. Mad reinforcements are on the way.”

  He crossed his arms. “Translation, please.”

  “Amirah, Ji-A, Ruby, and Mallory are all coming to town this weekend!” I said. “They’ll be here to help.”

  “What?” he gasped, actually putting a hand on his chest like his heart was about to leap out of it. “You didn’t tell me!”

  “Well, it’s not official Sitter business,” I said. “They’re just coming as friends.”

  “And we need something to do on Saturday night anyway,” Janis added. “I can share the spreadsheet with you if you want. So far, we only have activities booked for Saturday afternoon.”

  Brain was staring down the hall, a faraway look in his eyes. “Good,” he said. “Keep Saturday morning open, then.”

  “Okay,” Janis said, “I’ll update the Google Doc. But open for what?”

  “I’m hosting brunch,” he said.

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. Two seconds before, he’d been ready to blow the whistle on this whole thing, and now he was talking about brunch? Sometimes I loved Brian so much, I wanted to hug him.

  “Oh, cute,” Janis said, excited, typing into her spreadsheet. “Consider it booked!”

  Janis dropped me at home just in time for dinner, which was Dad panini-pressing some chicken breasts on his George Foreman and heating up some steamed broccoli in the microwave. “Hey, kid,” he said when I walked in the door. “You didn’t eat already, did you?”

  I grunted in the negative and plopped down into a chair. As he cooked, the little TV in the kitchen was on and Mom was engrossed in the Home Shopping Network.

  “I tried to change it,” Dad said. “But she got really upset. I wonder if there’s something on here I should buy for her birthday.” The item currently being shown was a fuzzy blanket with a matching eye mask.

  “I mean, honestly, Dad,” I said, “I kinda want that too. Cozy and chic!”

  “Ta-da!” Dad said, wiping his hands on his jeans before turning around and setting plates down on the table in front of me and Mom. “The chicken might be a little burned and the broc still a little frozen,” he said, “but it is dinner, and it is food!”

  I looked over at Mom, and I swear I saw a little smile tugging at the edge of her lips. “Thanks, Dad,” I said, picking up my fork. “It looks delicious.”

  After dinner, Mom and I watched some more HSN. Repeated calls to Dad to hand over his credit card number went unanswered, so we did not get to order the exfoliating pore extractor or the eighty-four pack of scratch-and-sniff washi tape, like we wanted. Then I helped Mom get ready for bed, and finally headed to my room. I hadn’t looked at my phone in a while, so when I pulled it out, I had sixty-two unread messages in the group chat, seven of which were Shania Twain GIFs, and the rest seemed to be a discussion about whether or not Mallory should try to buy a coat tonight. I scrolled back a bit to see that she had asked, What’s the weather like there this weekend? Should I bring a jacket? before getting roasted by everyone. It was currently eighty-two degrees in Miami, and thirty-one in Kansas. I went to send a GIF of the Ikea monkey as inspiration for what kind of coat Mallory should bring, then fell down a momentary GIF hole of monkeys on computers, many of which reminded me of myself doing my schoolwork.

  When I finally pulled myself out, I saw another notification: a missed call and a voice mail. My stomach dropped as I looked at the transcript and realized the message was from Tom, confirming that the band did indeed want to play the school Valentine’s Day dance, and now he wanted me to call him back with details.

  It was now after nine, and I figured I could reasonably wait until tomorrow morning to call him back, and I sent Janis a quick text, asking her what time I should tell them to play.

  We’ll get with Kendra and Karen tomorrow, and get all the details, she wrote.

  I’m already talking to the band, I wrote back. So can’t you talk to Kendra and Karen?

  No way, she replied. You’re on the dance committee too. Don’t shirk. A few seconds later, my phone dinged again. Harper Finkle makes a splash. I had to think about that one for a minute; then it came to me. My—and Janis’s—favorite episode of Wizards of Waverly Place was the one where there was a fashion show, of course. Harper’s outfits were always the epitome of inspirational (hello, Fruit Roll-Ups dress), and in this episode, she was wearing…

  Rubber ducks? I wrote back.

  Yep, she wrote. I had this all-denim look, but it was way too Britney-Justin, so I added some rubber duck earrings and a clear raincoat, and now it’s totally magical.

  Janis, you quack me up.

  Since Amirah, Ji-A, Ruby, and Mallory were arriving tomorrow, I wanted to make sure my look was on point. I opened my closet and surveyed my options, and ultimately decided to lean into the Kansas thing: a sunflower-print bodysuit under a flowy, black oversized eighties high-waisted power suit. I could roll the legs of the suit up, and scrunch the sleeves, and then wear my black leather Sk8-His. I could tie a green-and-yellow scarf around my head, like eighties Madonna, and wear it with a single dangly earring—either the one that was a miniature watercolor palette with a real brush and paints, or one of the earrings that were made from Cheez-Its (sadly, plastic and not real). I couldn’t decide between the earrings, so I figured I’d make a snap decision in the morning. It was a “flower power suit.�
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  I got ready for bed, and then got out my books and looked at my homework. I liked to tell myself that my schoolwork was slipping because I was so busy being a Sitter, but tonight I couldn’t lie to myself. Tonight my schoolwork was slipping because I’d spent too much time Home Shopping. I turned on my reading light, determined to stay awake long enough to do the bare minimum to get me through the next day.

  Then a sound at my window made me freeze. It wasn’t the sound of the wind whipping around a creaky old house or the sound of a branch scratching the glass. It was the sound of a tap. A deliberate tap.

  I closed my book and looked at the window. The thick curtain was closed, so I couldn’t see out, but that also meant that no one could see in. There were four people in the world who ever wanted to get ahold of me. One of them I lived with, and the other three—if for some reason they weren’t able to call or text—would have just let themselves in the front door.

  Maybe I was imagining it, or maybe it was the sound of something else, coming from somewhere else in the house. Or, maybe…my mind flashed to Tom, who now had my phone number. I had no doubt that Tom was stupid, and I had no doubt that he was also evil, but I’d take an evil genius over an evil moron any day, because at least a genius has a plan. A moron’s likely to do something stupid, like show up at a teenage girl’s house late on a school night.

  Tap. Tap.

  This time, there was no denying it, and my mind was most definitely not playing tricks on me. Moving as quietly as I could, I set my book down and stood up. I raised my hand and concentrated, using my kinesis to feel through all the doors and windows in the house to make sure they were locked. The only one that wasn’t was the window in Mom’s room, which sent a chill down my spine, so I used my kinesis to lock it. I wasn’t sure what to do next. I raised my hand toward the light switch, using my kinesis to flick it off. I took a deep breath and hoped that whatever creep lurked outside maybe thought I’d just gone to bed.

  Now that I was sitting in my dark room, though, I realized just how not-dark my room was. There was the glowing light from my fan, and from my computer charger, and from my vintage Nickelodeon clock radio that I’d found at a garage sale, and from my lava lamp, and from— Another tap made me move quicker.

  I walked to the window, and pulled the curtain back. It wasn’t that dark outside either, and between the streetlamps and the light pollution, it was easy to see across the yard and into the night. There were no demons. No Tom. The yard was empty. Then I saw it, just a few feet away from my window. Darker than the night and seemingly designed to blend in with the shadows. A crow. My breath caught and my heart started to race.

  For a second I felt frozen, not sure what to do. Then I snapped back and opened the window to let it in. It hopped over the sill and, with a few flaps of its wings, dropped down onto the middle of the rug. Then it turned into a boy.

  It seemed like the process of turning from a human into an animal, and vice versa, could be gross. Feathers tearing through skin, bones snapping, teeth morphing, and facial features stretching. Horror-movie stuff. This wasn’t like that. It was just a snap, and there he was, not a feather to be found.

  We stood there, not speaking, just looking at each other. I had a million things to say and a million emotions running through me. After all the time that I had spent thinking about him, all the interactions planned, I’d never imagined that he would come to my window. Never imagined that the first time I saw him again would be when he was standing in my room. I felt relieved and angry and concerned at the same time, especially because Adrian looked like crap.

  Adrian was wearing the same clothes that he’d had on when I’d last seen him two months before, and they looked like he had been wearing them nonstop for those two months. His gray jeans were now tinted a grimy beige, and the neck of his black T-shirt was stretched out, with a large rip in the side. His hair, which had been a tight crop before, had now grown out so that just the tips were bleached, and he had bags under his eyes.

  I wasn’t sure what to say. Was I mad at him? Or did I want to run over and hug him? Finally he went first.

  “Hi,” he said, shifting back and forth on his feet. “Nice pajamas.”

  “Thanks,” I said, looking down at the yummy-sushi flannel, bought in homage to Buffy. “I don’t really eat sushi,” I said, by way of explanation, “but I have yet to find a good microwave burrito print.” A beat of silence. “Do you want to sit down? You look tired. Wait,” I said as I pulled out my desk chair and moved the pile of magazines from the seat to the floor. “I know you’re not supposed to say that to people, but you look like you…I don’t know…Are you okay?”

  He crossed over to the chair, and gratefully sank into it.

  “Do you want me to take your coat? Do you want to take your shoes off?” I asked, feeling like I wanted to do something to make him feel more comfortable, but he just shook his head.

  “I am tired. I’m exhausted,” he said. “Sleeping in trees is for the birds. I mean, I don’t know how to build a nest, so I just have to find a good branch and perch, so I’m waking up every few minutes feeling like I’m about to fall off and plummet to the ground.”

  I kept my eyes on him as I walked over to my bed and sat down on it, crossing my legs underneath me. “Can’t you fly?” I asked, realizing that I had zero idea about how his power worked.

  “Yeah, but not if I’m asleep,” he said. “I need to be awake and focused. It’s not instinctive. It takes concentration.”

  I nodded. “And sleeping on the ground is not an option?”

  He shook his head, and ran his hand over his hair. “I tried, but man, those cats are killer.” He looked at me, and smiled a little. “It’s good to see you,” he said. I swallowed and nodded.

  “It’s good to see you too,” I said, looking down at my knee and tracing my finger over an illustration of a piece of sushi called “ikura,” which looked absolutely disgusting. “Where have you been? Why are you here?” The questions came out quicker than I wanted them to.

  Adrian’s mouth moved like it wasn’t sure which way to contort. “I’ve been around. I never left Spring River.” He paused. “I would have come earlier, but I wasn’t sure you wanted to see me.”

  “Why’d you come now?” I said.

  “Because I don’t know how much longer I can stay out there,” he said, “and I don’t know where else to go. I’m scared to go home. I’m scared to go anywhere.”

  I swallowed. “I don’t think you have a home anymore,” I said. “Brian told me that Wanda’s place was searched. He didn’t say what happened after that, but…they’re looking for you.”

  He nodded. “I know, and I’m not surprised,” he said. “Esme, you have to believe me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything. If I had, I would never have let Wanda hurt anyone.”

  “If you didn’t do anything, then why are you hiding?” I asked. “Just tell them.”

  He shook his head resolutely, and glanced at the window like he was about ready to fly right back out. “I wasn’t born like this,” he said, flapping his hands like a bird. “It’s a power Wanda gave me because it would help her out. And if it can be given to me, then it can be taken away.” He stopped, and swallowed. “I don’t want that to happen.”

  “Then if they want to talk to you, tell them the truth,” I said. “You’re not going to get in trouble for something you didn’t do.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “but what if they believe me and still take my powers away?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, not wanting to admit to him that this probably was a possibility. “Brian told me they’re still trying to get a new Synod set up, so it sounds like they’ve got a lot going on these days. Once they talk to you, they might not even care about a…” I wasn’t sure what to call him. “Bird boy,” I said finally, though that sounded kind of like an insult. But I looked up, and Adria
n was smiling.

  “I like being a bird boy,” he said. “And I’d like to stay this way.”

  “You really don’t want it to be taken away?” I asked. He shook his head, and cracked his neck from side to side.

  “I’ve been this way for a long time now,” he said. “I’ve forgotten how to be a boy-boy, and if they take my power away, then I’m just back to being a nobody. As a bird boy, at least I’m something special.”

  “Adrian,” I said, “not to sound like an inspirational post or anything, but you’ll always be something special, even if you can’t sprout feathers and fly away.”

  “Ha, thanks.” He laughed, but he looked at me, and our eyes met for so long that I broke and looked away, standing up from the bed.

  “I’m going to get a glass of water,” I said. “Do you want anything?”

  “Yeah.” He swallowed. “Water’s great.”

  I wasn’t really thirsty, but it was a good excuse to get out of there and give myself a moment to think. Even covered in two months of bird grime, Adrian was still really cute, and I could tell by his eyes that he was telling the truth about Wanda. He was also telling the truth about being scared. But still—I hadn’t heard from him in two months. And if he really had been in Spring River that whole time, he could have dropped by or given me a sign. Anything but a total ghosting.

  In the kitchen, I got two glasses down from the cabinet and filled them at the tap, then turned around to head back to my room. I was startled to see Dad in the doorway, and he flipped on the light switch. “Have you seen my reading glasses?” he asked, glancing around at the counters.

  “Um, no,” I said. He looked at me, and took in the fact that I was now carrying two full glasses of water.

  “What are you doing?” he said. “You’re not going to drink all that before bed, are you?”

  “No, of course not,” I said. “I’m, uh, doing a hair mask.” I started to walk past him, and he turned to watch me go down the hall.

  “In your bedroom?” he called after me.